There has not been much breaking news in Arlington lately. For those who like to comment on stories with “Slow news day?” — yes, that has been accurate for a good portion of the past month.
But inevitably, breaking news does happen in Arlington. We are a county with some 230,000 residents, a major airport, rail lines, Metro tunnels, highways, bridges, a river, government offices and one of the world’s largest office buildings — things happen here.
We know that one thing readers like about us is that we are often the first to report breaking news. But our email subscribers are often slow to see that breaking news, since by design they only get an update once a day.
Also, those who like our Facebook page are subject to the whims of the Facebook algorithm, and might not be seeing breaking stories.
Today we’re wondering: should we offer an alternative? Should we start sending out breaking news alerts to email subscribers?